Reviews

No True Believers by Rabiah York Lumbard

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muse692's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

savage_sav's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mythbusty's review

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3.0

This was a fun book. There were some plausibility issues but I still blew through it in one day so clearly it held my attention.

several things all at once: i love that at no point does the tension in the plot involve the main character's boyfriend being unfaithful (i'm poly, but using cheating as a plot point is SO cliche and i'm tired of the trope); i love salma's approach to life; i love reading something that feels /real/ in young adult fiction (not that i don't love fantasy); and i love how thoroughly this book drew me in.

i'll definitely be reading another novel by lumbard in the future if it crosses my radar!

zbrarian's review

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5.0

This book had me hooked from the beginning. Hackers? Check. Edge of your seatness? Check. Didn’t want it to end? Check. An amazing story of one who fights for her rights and fights back to save her family. Salma’s detective skills were amazingly written. The scenes at school, when Salma was being bullied, not just by students but by educators and administrators had me squirming and wanting to slap these people for treating her so badly, just because of her religion. To point fingers without understanding and knowing the facts angered me. The love story between Salma and Amir was one of true love, not a typical teenager romance. Definitely a solid read for YA.

aliciaellen's review

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5.0

Thanks to the Kid Lit Exchange network and Crown Books for Young Readers for the review copy of No True Believers by Rabiah York Lumbard. All opinions are my own.

Salma Bakkioui is coping with her best friend Miriam moving to another country when the unthinkable happens. A terrorist bombing occurs close to home and as a result, Islamophobia is at an all-time high. Salma, her boyfriend, Amir, and their families find themselves the targets of microaggressions, as well as physical and emotional attacks. Then Amir and Salma find themselves as official suspects of the bombing. Will Salma be able to use her computer skills to find out who is really responsible before it is too late?

There are just SO many reasons to love this book! First, Salma is an incredibly well-developed and complex character that overcomes many challenges both big and small. Second, this book deals with the very real problem of Islamophobia and the discrimination that many American Muslims face every day. Third, the author Rabiah York Lumbard is an American Muslim and much of the discrimination described in the book comes from her own personal experiences. This book is an absolute must-read!

hauntedhexgirl's review

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4.0

This book was a well paced read with beautiful relationships, friendships, and familial relationships as well. The main character is smart, witty, and her own hero. Some of the story might be a little bit implausible based on the age of the heroine and how some of it fell into place, but I don’t really care about that. I loved how much Salma loved the people around her and her culture and how she taught the reader about her culture in the midst of telling you what was happening. I think it was really well interwoven. This is a very heavy subject for the book, displaying real world injustices and discriminations that happen, but I think it handles it in a very age appropriate manner for a young adult book. I also loved that this book also had disability representation.

The book kept me wanting more, but was still predictable unfortunately.

Overall, good read with great characters that I would recommend to others.

thindbooks's review

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5.0

*This arc was given to me by the author to give an honest review*
This book will change your life. A Muslim girl seeks her freedom in the U.S. when she is framed for a terrorist act.

This book is about the coming of age of Salma, the main character. She is brave and goes through many problems with this book which she solves on her own. The author put many obstacles for her to go through so that the main character will fight for her freedom and not be judged of who she is. I liked the writing of this story. Rabiah has written it well and explained everything that was going on in this novel. She wrote the book in a well-paced to keep the readers entertained with thrillers (nothing scary more like what will happen next). The author gave Salma a love interest, good friends and family to support her and help her to never give up. This book made you turn every single page until the end.